Sunday, May 9, 2010

close.

just did the cast off of my vegas (traveling) woman-and yea. it was close. blocking tomorrow.

Friday, May 7, 2010

the good, the bad, the ugly-vegas

i'm still not impressed with this city, but since it was for work, and on someone else's dime-why not. there was some good things:
yarn shopping-woolly wonders- closer to the hotel than gail knits that i visited last time, and i sorta liked the yarn choice better. an awesome raspberry pink coach bag on sale!. bobbi brown gel eye liner at nordstrom's (i love their eye make up-mary, you are so bad for me!) cool sunglasses. restaurants that actually served good food, at good prices, and perfect (my size) portions- la salsa cantina, gilley's (bbq), and maggianos. a great price on a bottle of syrah-you'd be surprised how much they charge in vegas for basic things. tons of knitting time-nearly finished my traveling woman shawl, but i did finish pj's guitar strap. plenty of walking to be had-getting me ready for the peachtree road race. plenty of good tv. a very nice comfy bed to sleep in AND getting to sleep in!
the bad- during the day- HOT, HOT, HOT-don't care if it's a dry heat-it's still HOT. a gazillion people-don't know why anyone comes here for VACATION WITH THEIR SMALL CHILDREN- seriously?! buffets-didn't go to any, but they are only good if you want to eat your body weight in food, or have teenage boys 'cause they really aren't that great or cheap. i paid $20 for a 4 mile taxi ride-the meter will kick in if the taxi goes less than 2o mph- so it could cost you a lot more on the strip-definitely NOT like a nyc cab! shopping here is "okay", but how many louis vutton, coach, jimmy choo etc stores do you need in one city?! the casinos border on the spectacular, but really just sensory overkill.
the ugly-hooker business cards that get shoved in your face. same said cards litter the entire area. people who either don't look in a mirror before they go outside, or they don't understand the concept of "proper fit". this does provide some interesting people watching-but a person can only take so much.
vegas-really just a cheesy-sleazy place, but FREE for me, so you get what you pay for right?! granted my good does exceed the bad and ugly, i did enjoy having some down time to myself-very refreshing. IF there's a next time, i'll probably take in a show-would like to see the blue man group and the phantom of the opera.

paris during the day

garth in concert at the wynn

cher at caesars palace
water show at the bellagio

rip it, peel it, eat it.

this past saturday our neighbors held what will hopefully become a tradition- a crawfish boil.it was AMAZING! and there were fireworks at the end. this was my first time eating that was not already "dressed".


andrew did his part. the weather and company really added to the day.


Sunday, May 2, 2010

happy birthday.

celebrating pj-what a great guy, can't believe you're 17! pj's birthday dinner included stuffed burgers (portabella mushrooms, bacon and swiss cheese between 2 patties! and german chocolate cake. happy wishes to you!!!

swatch central

my suv became a super useful vehicle yesterday. finished swatching for arabella, traveling woman, and pavo real. below are the swatches. not sure how useful they will prove to be. i'm going with size 6 for the traveling woman-who will have a cool name since it's going to be my las vegas plane/airport knitting-any suggestions? the colorway reminds me of cherries in milk chocolate.

the arabella i got 5.5 sts-1" on size 6, but wanted to see how a smaller needle would look. the swatched area above the white thread is the 5's. after washing the swatch it grew a bit, so think i'll stick with 6's for this. now pavo real, i tried size 8 and 9-got about the same gauge 4 sts rather than 3.5 sts-1". will probably stick with the 8's so it's not too loose. the swatch using the 8's is below the stitch marker. below are the swatches, and if you're not a knitter-none of this will make any sense. however, it'll be the easiest way to tell my 3 knitting compadres who are going to be doing arabella and pavo real with me to know how things came out-

arabella (green) pavo real (pink)